<p>I am debating if I should mark down Native American and African American on my future applications. My great grandmother was full Cherokee Indian; this is my reason for putting Native American down. I am uncertain if it counts thou. Also, since I am a descendent of slaves, do I mark down African American or Black? </p>
<p>Thanks for the replies :)</p>
<p>Unless you are involved with a tribe, I don’t suggest putting down Native American. Plenty of black people – including me – are part Native American, but have no real connection to that heritage, so wouldn’t list it on a college app.</p>
<p>African American means people who are descendants of black African slaves in the U.S. If you meet that criterion, then that’s how to identify yourself on an app.</p>
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<p>NSM - To what extent do you think the “descendent of slaves” imperative is currently required as part of the definition? There are definitions that would embrace all Americans of sub-Saharan African ancestry as African Americans. That would include descendants of African immigrants or immigrants of other nations who have African ancestry, as well as the descendants of free black antebellum Americans. Do you think that the more restrictive definition is now the standard?</p>
<p>I think that the more restrictive is becoming the standard when it come to things like college apps because colleges are trying to differentiate black people who are children of African immigrants from black people who are descendants of African slaves in the U.S.</p>
<p>If the goal is “diversity”, how does such a distinction improve diversity. Especially if your are talking about black families who haven’t been slaves for hundreds of years (New England specifically) or the “free blacks” of the antebellum South as Gadad suggests.</p>
<p>You would be African American.</p>
<p>Instead of trying to find out which ethnicity would give you a higher chance at top schools, and gain a foot up in the admissions process, how about actually putting down the ethnicity you identify with?</p>
<p>You should probably have legal tribal membership if you are going to claim that you are Native American. If you don’t have it, just put African American.</p>
<p>If you are enough native american to be elligible to write it, do that. However, if not then just put african american. you don’t want to lie, but being native american will put you in a much smaller admissions pool. Though, they don’t do quotas anymore.</p>
<p>what’s “enough to be elligable to write it”?
I mean, i’m a quarter spanish, do I mark hispanic from spain along with my other ethnicities?</p>
<p>Being a Hispanic from Spain won’t help you. The underrepresented Hispanics are from Mexico and Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>If your GGM was 100% Cherokee then you would be 1/8. I believe under US EEO regs that means you are considered Cheerokee and can say so for any purpose related to Federal business. e.g., census, loans, employment, etc. I would presume the same guideline applies for college purposes, too. </p>
<p>Your children, however, would be 1/16 and wouldn’t qualify for EEO protection as Native Americans. </p>
<p>It’s my understanding that the Cheerokee nation keeps excellent geneology records and - if you ever needed to - you might even be able to prove your tribal membership. I know this because I’m 1/16. My mother is recorded with the Cherokees, but I am not.</p>
<p>Yup. Why not?</p>
<p>If you’re part Native American, then feel free to put it down on your application. Every half and half white/Native has undoubtedly done so. Why not you?</p>
<p>If the OP happens to e black and Cherokee, he may be out of luck because the Cherokees relatively recently kicked African Americans out of their tribe.</p>
<p>"Early in the 1800s, some Cherokees acquired slaves, and in the 1830s, enslaved African Americans accompanied the Cherokees when the federal government forced them to move to Indian Territory (Oklahoma), where the tribe struggled to rebuild its culture and institutions. By 1861, there were 4,000 black slaves living among the Cherokees.</p>
<p>“After the Civil War, the tribe signed a treaty that granted former slaves, or freedmen, “all the rights of Native Cherokees.” But in 2007, Cherokees amended their tribal constitution, making “Indian blood” a requirement for citizenship. As a result, some 2,800 descendants of Cherokee freedmen were excluded from membership.”
[IndiVisible</a> - African-Native American Lives in the Americas](<a href=“http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/indivisible/cherokee_freedmen.html]IndiVisible”>http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/indivisible/cherokee_freedmen.html)</p>
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<p>Whatever honor you gain in being rejected due to your unwillingness to exploit a technicality will not equal your pleasure at being admitted, I assure you.</p>
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<p>This wouldn’t apply to the OP because he actually does have Indian blood, as his great-grandmother was full Cherokee Indian.</p>
<p>@OP
I’m in the same boat as you. To answer the question clearly is plain and simple. Don’t claim you are Native American if you aren’t in a tribe or have a tribal membership of some sort. Doing so will not give you any scholarships or anything like that. If that’s what you are looking for, you won’t get it unless you have the membership. So just mark that you are African American. If you join a tribe then feel free to mark the Native American box. You have to have a certain blood percentage in most cases. So, depending on who your grandmother married, their kids married, and your parents will determine your blood quantum. There is more that goes into that than meets the eye. You have to do whatever tasks the tribe has up for you to join. Each tribe is different in what ceremonies and criteria they have.</p>
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<p>That’s not what the official federal definitions say. The link to the definitions (and a quotation from the definitions) has just been posted in the new FAQ thread on this frequently asked question. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/927219-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-8-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/927219-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-8-a.html</a> </p>
<p>The definition hasn’t changed fundamentally in quite a while, not even during the federal rule-making notice-and-comment periods that came up the last few times relevant federal regulations were updated.</p>
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<p>Good luck on those applications. Relevant regulations and definitions are quoted or linked to from the FAQ thread </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/927219-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-8-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/927219-race-college-admission-faq-discussion-8-a.html</a> </p>
<p>on this broad and often contentious subject.</p>
<p>Native American is even more beneficial than African American for college apps, I’ve heard.
But you should put down black since you are only 1/16 native.</p>
<p>No, since your [bold]Great-Grandmother[/bold] is Cherokee. It’s too far to be considered Native - American. And you would be associated into the tribe. Your aren’t, since they don’t accept people that far back. </p>
<p>And what to you mean by descendent’s of black slaves in the U.S. My mother is from Central America, and is Black - Latina, does that make her Black in your definition, no. Black is anyone with African Ancestry. Simply that.</p>